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<h1 align="center"><span class="pagetitle">About Character Formatting in HTML...</span><br>
<font size=2>= <span class="sitetitle">Index DOT Html</span> by <a href="../../misc/email.htm">Brian Wilson</a> =</font></h1>
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<table border=3 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0>
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     <td valign=top align=center>
     <a href="#justify">Justification</a> |
     <a href="#physvirt">Physical Vs. Virtual Styles</a> |
     <a href="#special">A Special Generic Style</a></td>
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     <td valign=top align=center><big><a href="#related">Related Sites</a></big></td>
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<a name="justify"></a>
<dl>
<dt><big><b class="mainheading">Justification for Character Formatting</b></big>
    <dd>Character Formatting (which should be rendered distinctly from non-formatted
        text) allows the author in-line control over changes to content, whereas
        the other basic formatting mode, <a href="block.htm">Block Formatting</a>,
        defines content into vertically distinct sections from surrounding text.
        A visual browser will usually render Character Formatting changes in place
        while Block Formatting will render any applicable formatting plus an
        additional line break before and after the content block.
        <br><br>

        The main intent of SGML (and the derivative HTML language) is to be
        a device independent language for describing the content of documents. To
        accomplish this, it tries to divorce presentation rules from textual
        content. Most HTML elements are not intended to give direct control to
        the author over how the final layout will look, but many Character
        Formatting elements (especially many of the newer ones) now give an
        author this control.
</dl>


<a name="physvirt"></a>
<dl>
<dt><big><b class="mainheading">Physical Vs. Virtual Character Formatting Elements</b></big>
    <dd>There are two classes of character formatting styles - Physical
        styles (referred to currently as "inline presentational elements" in the
        XHTML specs and in the past as &quot;typographical elements&quot;) and Virtual
        styles (referred to currently as "inline phrasal elements" in the XHTML specs
        and in the past as &quot;logical&quot; or &quot;idiomatic&quot; elements.)
        Each Physical style should be rendered distinctly from other
        Physical styles, while each Virtual style should be rendered distinctly
        from other Virtual styles. Many of the Physical styles are the common
        visual rendering analog for Virtual styles (i.e.:
        strong emphasis &lt;<b class="tagname">strong</b>&gt; is usually rendered as
        boldface: &lt;<b class="tagname">b</b>&gt;)
        <br><br>

    <dd><b class="subheading">Physical Styles</b>
    <dd>[&lt;<a href="b/big.htm">big</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="b/blink.htm">blink</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="b/bold.htm">b</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="f/font.htm">font</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="i/i.htm">i</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="s/small.htm">small</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="s/strike.htm">s, strike</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="s/sub.htm">sub</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="s/sup.htm">sup</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="t/tt.htm">tt</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="u/u.htm">u</a>&gt;]
    <dd>Physical styles explicitly describe what the final appearance of
        the contained text should look like. If the rendering device does not
        have the capability to produce the indicated Physical style (such as a
        browser for the visually impaired), this formatting may be lost.
        <br><br>

    <dd><b class="subheading">Virtual Styles</b>
    <dd>[&lt;<a href="a/abbr.htm">abbr</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="a/acronym.htm">acronym</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="c/cite.htm">cite</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="c/code.htm">code</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="d/dfn.htm">dfn</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="e/em.htm">em</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="k/kbd.htm">kbd</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="q/q.htm">q</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="s/samp.htm">samp</a>&gt;, &lt;<a href="s/strong.htm">strong</a>&gt;,
         &lt;<a href="v/var.htm">var</a>&gt;]
     <dd>Virtual styles purposefully do not include any final rendering
         hints in their definitions. These styles describe instead how the
         contained text is used in the context of the document. The main benefit
         of such elements is when a document is experienced using a method
         <em>OTHER</em> than a standard screen-based visual environment; the
         <em>INTENT</em> of the content can be preserved.
         <br><br>

    <dd><b class="subheading">Which Styles to Use?</b>
    <dd>The original HTML 2.0 specification contained all the Virtual
        styles listed above, while including only a few of the listed Physical
        styles. The many Physical styles now available are more recent and reflect
        a demand from authors for more explicit rendering control. To improve
        portability though, it is usually recommended to use Virtual styles
        rather than Physical in your documents.<br>
        <b class="l3heading">Example:</b> Use of the
        &lt;<b class="tagname">i</b>&gt; element to render text in italics will
        only be effective on those browsers which are capable of displaying
        italics. Not all browsers are guaranteed to have this ability. It is
        often better to use logical styles such as &lt;<b class="tagname">em</b>&gt;
        which specify that the contents need emphasis of <em>SOME</em> sort,
        regardless of the presentation mode.
        <br><br>

<a name="special"></a>
<dt><big><b class="mainheading">A Special Generic Character Style</b></big>
<dd><b>[&lt;<a href="s/span.htm">span</a>&gt;]</b>
    <dd>The introduction of Style Sheets has added two new HTML elements to
        allow for generic situations where no specific HTML markup would
        be appropriate. The <a href="s/span.htm">SPAN</a> element (and its companion
        Block Formatting element <a href="d/div.htm">DIV</a>) has no real inherent
        semantic purpose assigned to its structure - the author can assign Style
        Sheet presentation properties as needed.
</dl>

<br>

<a name="related"></a>
<br>
<dl>
<dt><big><b class="mainheading">Related Sites</b></big>
<dt><b class="subheading">Official References</b>
<dt><a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1866.txt" class="relevant">http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1866.txt</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">RFC 1866: The HTML 2.0 specification (plain text)</span>
<dt><a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/" class="relevant">http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">The web version of the HTML 2.0 (RFC 1866) specification</span>
<dt><a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Wilbur/" class="relevant">http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Wilbur/</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">The HTML 3.2 (Wilbur) recommendation<br>
        [Includes all HTML 2 character elements and newer formatting elements in common use]</span>
<dt><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/" class="relevant">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">The HTML 4.0 Recommendation<br>
        [Includes all 2.0, and 3.2 elements plus several new character styles]</span>
<dt><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.html" class="relevant">http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.html</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1<br>
        [Includes usage of SPAN and DIV]</span>
<dt><a href="http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions.html" class="relevant">http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions.html</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">Netscape Extensions to HTML 2.0<br>
        [Details FONT SIZE element usage (this document also used to describe Blink as well)]</span>
<dt><a href="http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions_3.html" class="relevant">http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/html_extensions_3.html</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">Netscape Extensions to HTML 3.0<br>
        [Includes Big, Small, Sub and Sup]</span>
<dt><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/html/reference/elements.asp" class="relevant">http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/html/reference/elements.asp</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">Internet Explorer Tag reference<br>
        [Details Font Color and Face usage as well as 2.0, 3.2 and common extensions]</span>
<br><br>

<dt><b class="subheading">Tutorials</b>
<dt><a href="http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerP2.html#PV" class="relevant">http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerP2.html#PV</a>
    <dd><span class="relevant">&quot;A Beginner's Guide to HTML&quot; from NCSA - Logical versus Physical styles</span>
</dl>

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